(1931-2015) US author who remains best known for Ragtime (1975), a novel that evokes the past with a hallucinatory power which edges its real-life and fictional characters into a fable-like milieu (see Fabulation). His first novel of any interest in a fantastic sense, Big as Life (1966), depicts Satirically the Dystopian response of the New York authorities when enormous beings suddenly appear in the city streets. Over the years, he has created a fabulated history for New York, his continuing central venue; his modes presentation vary, but The Waterworks (1994), set in a Steampunk version of the nineteenth-century city, is an intricate tale of conspiracy and Suspended Animation [JC]

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We passed a couple of major milestones on 1st August: the SFE is now over 4.5 million words, of which John Clute’s own contribution has now exceeded 2 million. (For comparison, the 1993 second edition was 1.3 million words, and … Continue reading →

We’ve reached a couple of milestones recently. The SFE gallery of book covers now has more than 10,000 images: this one seemed appropriate for the 10,000th. Our series of slideshows of thematically linked covers has continued to grow, and Darren Nash of … Continue reading →

We’ve been talking for a while about new features to add to the SFE, and another one has gone live today: the Gallery, which collects together covers for sf books and links them back to SFE entries. To quote from … Continue reading →